February 08, 2011

Book: Cinderella Ate My Daughter

Alright, just put this one in my queue at the library after reading an interview here with this local author. We don't play up the princess thing or the pink but let our nearly 4-year-old daughter choose her own interests. She's more interested in running around outside, playing doctor/ambulance driver/pilot, or tending to her flock of baby dolls. But pink fairies and the like are part of life for little girls regardless of what end of the parenting spectrum your on. I think my daughter at least feels like she should be into it because she sees other kids, but it's truthfully not striking a chord with her. Tonight she was telling me she's a t-shirt and pant kind of girl when I asked her if she wanted to wear a skirt to school. But the other day she told me "rockets aren't for girls" and I gasped a little and tried to turn it into a teaching moment. Can I wring the neck of whoever told her that -- wait a minute, that's society as a whole.... Where do kids pick up some of these ideas, what can you do besides empower them as much as possible at home? There's no way Hannah Montana is ever going to see the light of day in this house, that's for certain. But that doesn't mean my job is done.

I'd be interested if anyone else had read any good books on the topic, particularly one that aren't too alarmist.

Comments

Alright, just put this one in my queue at the library after reading an interview here with this local author. We don't play up the princess thing or the pink but let our nearly 4-year-old daughter choose her own interests. She's more interested in running around outside, playing doctor/ambulance driver/pilot, or tending to her flock of baby dolls. But pink fairies and the like are part of life for little girls regardless of what end of the parenting spectrum your on. I think my daughter at least feels like she should be into it because she sees other kids, but it's truthfully not striking a chord with her. Tonight she was telling me she's a t-shirt and pant kind of girl when I asked her if she wanted to wear a skirt to school. But the other day she told me "rockets aren't for girls" and I gasped a little and tried to turn it into a teaching moment. Can I wring the neck of whoever told her that -- wait a minute, that's society as a whole.... Where do kids pick up some of these ideas, what can you do besides empower them as much as possible at home? There's no way Hannah Montana is ever going to see the light of day in this house, that's for certain. But that doesn't mean my job is done.

I'd be interested if anyone else had read any good books on the topic, particularly one that aren't too alarmist.